The head of smart-phone maker Palm said the company’s attempt at a turnaround — which ended earlier this year when it was bought by Hewlett Packard for $1.8 billion in cash — was thwarted by competitors that simply moved too quickly.

Speaking at a tech conference Tuesday, Jon Rubinstein said that Palm Inc., a pioneer in the smart phone market that fell behind in recent years, had many of the necessary elements for success when it launched its fresh operating software, webOS, and accompanying Pre and Pixi smart phones in 2009. These strengths included a solid team and software, a great product pipeline and over $500 million in cash.

Still, “the world moved faster than we expected and we ran out of runway,” he said.

With just a few adjustments (shown in bold), I was able to change it to a possible story from the future — say, oh, a year or two from now — about Microsoft’s Windows Phone team, which is attempting a turnaround of its own in the mobile sector.

The head of smart-phone maker Microsoft said the company’s attempt at a turnaround — which culminated with the launch of Kin and Windows Phone 7 — was thwarted by competitors that simply moved too quickly.

Speaking at a tech conference Tuesday, Steve Ballmer said that Microsoft Corp., a pioneer in the smart phone market that fell behind in recent years, had many of the necessary elements for success when it launched its fresh operating software, Windows Phone 7, and accompanying smart phones in 2010. These strengths included a solid team and software, a great partner program and over $36 billion in cash.

Still, “the world moved faster than we expected and we ran out of runway,” he said.

Don’t tell me this isn’t a possible outcome.

Windows Phone 7 devices have been available in the U.S. for just four weeks, so we don’t really know yet how well Microsoft’s new operating system is doing. But Microsoft’s disinclination to give any clues on sales — even though it has for Xbox Kinect and did for Windows 7 — is making people question the popularity of Windows Phone 7.

Then again, Google Android didn’t really start catching on until after a year. Slow initial sales for Microsoft would not necessarily spell failure — as long as it kept WP7 updated.

“They have made it clear that this is a long-term march for them,” IDC mobile analyst Will Stofega said of Microsoft’s mobile business. “It took quite a while for Android to ramp up.”

To avoid becoming another Palm, Microsoft must be vigilant in keeping Windows Phone 7 fresh, Stofega said. It must continue big-bucks marketing campaigns. It must keep playing its PR games. It must deliver on its initial promise that Windows Phone 7 is something new and different in an ever-changing smart-phone landscape.

The Samsung-manufactured Google Nexus S smart phone, which was unveiled Monday, will include support for near-field communications.

“That’s what Microsoft has to do to keep pushing and taking,” Stofega said. “They have some of the best names in the business in terms of UI. … Maybe one of the things they need to think about is just to go into their (research) labs, take some notes and start using some of that.”

Microsoft must be proactive instead of reactive. It must squeeze its device and component suppliers, Stofega said. It must update Windows Phone 7 every few months, if not more frequently.

“Get the developers on board,” he said. “Make sure you cross your T’s and dot your I’s. Make sure you have a not only compelling but different product.”

Otherwise, the Windows Phone team could fall behind and fall flat. It could become another Palm.

Of course, so could Nokia. So could BlackBerry-maker Research in Motion. In the AP story, you could probably substitute “Palm” for those companies, too.

The old mobile bigwigs — Palm, Microsoft, Nokia, BlackBerry — are being passed up by Google and Apple. The only way to return to the stage is to run fast and push hard.

“Trying to make the transition,” Stofega said, “trying to make a cultural change, is very difficult. Big money.”